South Korean workers use their annual leave relatively actively compared with major Asia-Pacific countries, according to a survey. The proportion of workers who used all their allocated leave ranked second after Singapore, and the actual number of days taken also placed near the top.
Deel, a global payroll and HR management platform, released the results of its analysis of annual leave usage across 17 Asia-Pacific countries, including South Korea, on Wednesday. The survey was based on about 4,700 actual employment contracts from last year across 17 major Asia-Pacific countries, including Australia, India, Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong.
The survey found that 53.3% of workers in South Korea used all of their allocated annual leave, ranking second among the 17 countries surveyed.
Singapore ranked first with an overall usage rate of 57.2%. It was followed by Malaysia at 50.8%, Hong Kong at 42.9% and Japan at 35.9%.
South Korea also ranked near the top in terms of the number of leave days taken. Singapore recorded the highest median number of leave days used at 19, followed by Hong Kong at 16.5 days and Malaysia at 15.5 days. South Korea ranked fourth with 15 days.
In Singapore, the median allocated leave was 18 days, but the actual number of days used was higher. This is interpreted as reflecting a culture in which workers take vacations relatively freely.
India, by contrast, had a low actual usage rate despite receiving ample leave. India's median annual leave used was 12 days, with an overall usage rate of just 17.2%. Considering that the median allocated leave was 18 days, the gap with actual days used was significant.
There was also a tendency for usage to vary by vacation system. At companies that adopted flexible leave systems, employees were found to take more annual leave in practice. Similar results were found in most countries operating flexible leave systems, including Singapore, India, Japan and Malaysia.
Indonesia was an exception. It was the only one among the 17 countries surveyed where the median number of days used by fixed-leave workers was 1.5 days more than that of flexible-leave workers.
The way vacations were taken also differed by country. In Australia, long vacations of 16 days or more accounted for 2.9% of all leave, the highest among the surveyed countries. A culture of taking extended breaks was relatively pronounced there.
India and Japan, by contrast, showed a strong tendency to take short breaks. Short vacations of one to two days accounted for 48.4% in India and 41.2% in Japan.
Lauren Thomas, head of economic research at Deel, said, "Even within the same Asia-Pacific region, vacation cultures differ markedly from country to country." She added, "To grow into a global company, it is necessary to understand the culture of each country well."
